Chemical Burn by Quincy J Allen

Sometimes, the scariest thing to do is to jump into open space.  To throw yourself, with all your might, into an uncertain future.  Lately, I’ve had my ability to read curtailed more than I could’ve ever thought possible, and each book I sit down to read has become a multi-month project.  So when I say I have to leap blindly and hope, it’s not the hyperbole it might otherwise be.

With Quincy J Allen’s Chemical Burn, that leap of faith landed me directly into a fantastic haystack of a book.  Right from the start, the writing leaps out as a snappy, upbeat take on what is usually a down and dour genre.  The main character, even in just the first few chapters, becomes someone we can instantly relate to.  Smart, funny, with a laid-back attitude and a voraciously protective nature, Justin Case is the type of protagonist so many people try to write, and so few get correct.  

So many times, novels along this vein can get lost in the need for bad guys to go splat that the action passages feel tacked-on.  However, Chemical Burn slowly cranks up the heat, each action piece worked seamlessly into the plot, always and forever advancing the story.  

When everything crescendos, and the plot comes to its head, I was turning pages at a feverish pace, desperate to know what came next.  So very few books that I pick up have that ability.  To any who enjoy good intrigue, fantastically written characters, and wonderfully paced action, I cannot recommend this book to you enough.  Take it with you everywhere, Justin Case.